Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Cairo.
RASHA AZAB
Azab is spokesperson for the Liberties Committee at the Press Syndicate in Cairo, which is holding a news conference tomorrow on the “hundreds of Egyptians protesting in Tahrir Square who have been subject to detention and torture by members of the army and Republican Guard … and the arrest of several of them and referral to military prosecution to stand military trials.”
Dr. AIDA SEIF AL-DAWLA
El-Dawla is with the Nadeem Center for Victims of Torture in Cairo. She was profiled by Time magazine as a global hero in 2004. She notes the beating of Rami Issam, known as the “singer of Tahrir Square,” by the army as part of a broader problem. Graphic video
NUBAR HOVSEPIAN
Hovsepian is an Armenian from Egypt who teaches political science at Chapman University in California. He said today: “Revising the constitution quickly seems to be leading to maintaining much of the old constitution, including authoritarian structures.
“Labor unions are organizing groups independent of state control. Time is also needed for the formation of national political parties before elections are held.
“We’ve seen protesters beaten up by the military.
“The Egyptian military is dependent on the U.S. government, which wants change to be limited and controlled, rather than substantial and deep. The latter is what most of the people who protested actually want.” Hovsepian recently wrote the piece “The Arab Pro-Democracy Movement: Struggles to Redefine Citizenship” for the new journal Jadaliyya.
For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167